Jill McCabe, the wife of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, broke her silence Monday on the events surrounding her husband’s firing and the claims that her political campaign influenced his decision-making.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Jill McCabe argued that President Trump and others spread “destructive lies” to “vilify” her and her husband in the months leading up to his dismissal, calling the attacks “false and utterly absurd.”
She wrote that she was recruited to campaign for state office in Virginia in 2014 on a platform of Medicaid expansion, and that she was conscious of her husband’s role when deciding whether to run.
{mosads}”To have my personal reputation and integrity and those of my family attacked this way is beyond horrible. It feels awful every day. It keeps me up nights,” McCabe wrote.
“I made the decision to run for office because I was trying to help people,” she continued. “Instead, it turned into something that was used to attack our family, my husband’s career and the entire FBI.”
Trump and other Republicans homed in on Andrew McCabe over what they deemed a conflict of interest. Jill McCabe accepted almost $500,000 in donations to her campaign for state office from a group affiliated with then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who is a close ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
They questioned Andrew McCabe’s role in leading the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, arguing that it indicated bias within the bureau.
McCabe was tapped to lead the investigation after his wife lost her race in November 2015.
The president had reportedly mocked McCabe for his wife’s political defeat during a phone call in 2017.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe last month for allegedly not being forthcoming with investigators during an inspector general review. Trump hailed the move as a “great day for democracy.”
Jill McCabe wrote Monday that her husband consulted with the FBI’s ethics experts over his involvement in her campaign. He did not attend fundraisers or go door-to-door to recruit voters, she said.
Last December, roughly two years after Jill McCabe’s campaign ended, Trump attacked her husband on Twitter, suggesting he was “racing the clock” to retire with full pension benefits.
“Nothing can prepare you for what happens when your life is turned upside down by current events,” McCabe wrote Monday.
“I have spent countless hours trying to understand how the president and so many others can share such destructive lies about me,” she added.